Not that long ago you could stuff your website with keywords and a thousand links and be bringing in big bucks.
Fortunately, Google got smart and dinged those sites that weren’t playing fair. So brands went on to focus on updating their websites – modern, clean, fresh designs. But to save a few bucks they didn’t build their sites for mobile devices.
Google didn’t like that either so they dropped the hammer again.
And now the big craze is Facebook, Social Media, and The Twitter Verse. Brands are spending millions of dollars on these platforms each year thinking they’re the holy grail that will lead to new business. But are they?
Bum-Bummmmmmm–Bummmmm.
Today, I’m going to piss off the Zuckerbergs of the world and tell you what THE BEST MARKETING PLAN really is, and SPOILER ALERT: It all comes down to one sentence: Your marketing needs to make the most noise people will wanna dance to. Let me explain…
Your Marketing Needs To Make The Most Noise People Will Wanna Dance Too…
1. I Hate Jared Because He’s A Tool.
I’m not talking about the washed out Jared that pops their head in conversations like lost puppies at work. I know none of us really like that guy, and just put up with him because he’s the office tool.
I’m referencing Jared the jewelry store. They have been effectively marketing to human beings since childbirth. That’s right, I knew Jared’s name as an infant before I knew how to say Mommy and Daddy and let’s face it, I’m not the only one. Their marketing found success by engraining their damn brand into our skulls.
What can we learn from this?
For starters, I hate Jared. He’s overkill. He is a tool. There’s not an original thought to his name. He doesn’t listen to customers he just spits out buzz words and thinks if he says it long enough you’ll buy it. And hey, he has a track record of making sales, so we can knock it completely. We’ll just make the process BETTER.
So, what can we learn from this tool?
- Get buyers early into your marketing funnel.
- Update your messaging as your campaign moves along.
These two bullets alone will up your marketing game. From now on, assume no one on Earth knows what your brand is about and your job is to get the word out. That means in every piece of marketing, every daily task, every company asset, you need to name drop. Think email signatures, hashtags, clever taglines that remind buyers what you’re selling and who you are.
Now the second point, and a huge reason why I hate Jared — is because he doesn’t listen.
True marketing should evolve based on the data. It should never be the same messaging for 9 months straight. But generally speaking, that’s where brands fall short. They come up with one plan, with one set of marketing buzz words and that’s it for the life of the campaign. That’s not the way to grow your business. Please, don’t be Jared. Push yourself to expand the language you use and the frequency you use said language in your campaigns.
2. Marketing Isn’t SEO, Facebook, Or Even Blogging; Just Ask Ryan Gosling.
Unless your brother is Ryan Freaking Gosling and Ryan is ready and willing to star in your marketing collateral, you need to spread your wings and fly. True marketing doesn’t focus on one channel. Those that do are left behind. You see it happen all the time. Brands create a plan that focuses on one niche / channel before moving on to the next.
The niche focus attack is generally justified as a result of a small marketing budget. However, if you want people to dance to your music — they need to be able to hear it. They need to know your show is coming up, they need flyers, fans talking about it, there needs to be a ticking clock where prospects are looking forward to going to your show (in this case, your workspace).
The best way to do this is selecting two or three marketing channels. For instance, social media, PPC, and email marketing. You don’t have to go overboard and try to optimize every part of each channel, but you should have some type of presence in those areas.
Marketing that actually works rarely focuses on one channel…unless of course, you have the Gosling Hook Up.
3. Will You E.A.T. What You Say?
My final point is what the good people at Google look at for every website in the entire world.
E. A. T. stands for: Expertise. Authoritativeness. Trustworthiness.
What the heck does that mean?
SEO has changed. In order to rank, keywords are not enough, you need signals all over the web and often times different versions across the web pointing back to you. In this case, reviews. Whether they come straight from Yelp, TrustPilot, or even Facebook you should be spending time collecting testimonials.
Think of Google as the cool dude looking to party.
He’ll only go to the party that everyone is talking about. At the end of the day, Google wants to be human. He wants to please humans. Having reviews out there that validate your brand is a huge plus in your direction and will make Google not only want to come to your show, but he’ll tell everyone he knows about your show.
Ask yourself: do you E.A.T. what you say? Do your clients?
If so, it’s time they tell the world.
Final Thoughts…
Marketing is about creating music that people wanna dance too. It’s that simple. It really is. I run a digital ad agency called www.Treehouse51.com and I can’t tell you how many times I see the difference with brands that get this point vs. the ones that don’t.
The trick is, you need to have different instruments playing your tune so prospects can hear your music.
PS. In our last article, we talked about how Everything You Do Should Be D.u.M.b. today I’m going to share a list of over 100 SEO Ranking Factors in what we call The Ultimate Google Ranking Factor List. Good hunting guys! Turn up that music and get your workspace name out there. Send me a message invite us to your show 🙂